Transferring money to Europe - large amounts!
 

Hi,

Buying a large apartment house in Austria and will be paying a deposit at the end of October, and the final amount next May
www.austria-apartments.com

any recommendations for companies to use to transfer the funds?
The "small" deposit is €56k so getting a good exchange rate can make a big difference in what it costs in £'s

Could be worth a cheap/free skiing / boarding holiday if someone saves me a small fortune!

Bob

www.austria-apartments.com

http://www.xe.com may be of use :)

Cant recommend any, guess you just need to hunt around for the best rate.

http://www.worldfirst.com/individual/index.htm
http://www.interchangefx.co.uk/
http://www.4xuk.co.uk/
http://www.currencies.co.uk/ (I did look at these guys a few years ago, so they have been around for a while).

HTH

Call your bank, if they have any sense they'll give you a decent rate with the bonus of a name you can trust. Do not trust one of these internet fly-by-nights with your hard-earned cash!

Suresh

May be there is an Austrian bank in London where you can open an account to make things easier?

Yep. www.xetrade.com

I've used them a fair bit with some significant amounts and the difference between them and the banks is shocking. It takes a few days to get the account set up. They're in Canada BTW, but they have accounts in London so you can just deposit Pounds in there.

Not connected with them. Just a happy customer.

Telboy ;)

Thanks for all the replies...

I'm quite happy using the internet to buy most things, but I must admit that I am a little uneasy about giving an internet based company a very large amount of money. However, if its gonna save me a substantial amount of dosh then its probably a risk I'll have to contemplate taking.

Cheers,

Bob

www.austria-apartments.com

Currencies direct
 

Used currencies direct when I bought my car from Europe 2 years ago. Much cheaper than banks and BS's. All was smooth and they are still around.

From the Currency Direct website:

Financial Mail on Sunday survey finds Currencies Direct to be best currency exchange rate provider (30th May 2004)

Cheers Speedking



Bob

www.austria-apartments.com

Exchange rate
 

PS. I only obtained currency for my deposit to start with. Exchange rate went the wrong way so my car ended up £250 more expensive than if I'd bought the whole amount at the outset.

Scaling up to an apartment may save:) (or cost:() thousands of pounds, so worth considering which strategy to use.

Yeah thats something I've been thinking about, with the exchange rate variations the property has already "gone up" around £12k since we made our formal offer in July.

Knowing my luck, I'll get a fixed rate now only to find its better next May !

Now if someone had a crystal ball and could see what the pound to euro was gonna do over the next six months that would be great!

Bob :confused:

www.austria-apartments.com

er er er er, free holiday, er eer er , think Wez.....THINK!!! :idea:

wait for a good rate and use western union transfer????

worth a try, i love Boarding!

Ive used www.xe.com with large amounts of cash to and from sterling they are fine, internet based but they are contactable via email and phone. As said above as well rates way better than the high street scummy banks

Gary

I recently bought a second property in NZ and transferred alot of money over on more than one occasion and this is what I have done

Via your bank (HSBC) in my case
- Find out the spot rate at the time for the particular currency.
- Then get them to speak to there currency desk and quote you on the amount you are sending over and what rate they will give you.

Remember that you CAN haggle over the rates and you can play them off against each other. I did this and save thousand at the time more than once.

In my case the NZD spot 2.80 and they offered at the time 2.75 per £ which is terrible. Haggling got me 2.78 and saved a packet. I just told them Barclays International would give me 2.78 and I will take my business elsewhere.

4X4BOB,

At least set up an account with www.xetrade.com so you can get online no commitment quotes. You may be very (pleasantly) surprised. I transferred a quarter mil out of the UK with them and the difference between them and Barclays was gobsmacking. The banks are creaming some serious coin off you if you use them.

Heck, tell me how much you want to convert to and from what and I'll log in to my account and get a quote for you. Yes I hate the rip-off banks that much :D